Jose Pablo Santanilla

Jose Pablo Santanilla (16 June 1817-27 April 1880) was a general in the Mexican Army during the Mexican-American War.

Biography
Santanilla was born in Santiago de Comanito in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, born to a criollo (Spanish-born) white family of the upper caste of society. His father, Eduardo Santanilla y Cosito, was killed in the Mexican War of Independence when Jose Pablo was only two years old, and Jose Pablo was raised by his uncle in Jalisco. In 1835, at the age of eighteen, he fought as a soldier in the Texan Revolution in the Battle of Gonzales and the next year he was wounded in the Battle of San Jacinto. Santanilla was promoted to Major in 1838 after the Pastry War. In 1845, during the Mexican-American War, he was promoted to Colonel and in the Battle of Loma Herboso his regiment of line infantry was bloodied with 34% casualties. He was among the captured in the battle, and he was released in 1848 when the war ended.

After the war he was promoted to Brigadier-General and served as a military attache to Ecuador. He died in Quito in 1880 of a fever, having served as a Major-General in the Ecuadorian Army.